654 
seemingly unsusceptible, of . variolous 
contagion, and a-reference to Mr. Hun~ 
ter’s work will. shew that similar, excep~ 
tions are common in syphillitic infec- 
tion; upon this particular, point, Dr, 
Russell most, pertinently.obseryes.:), 
“ Tf, of one hundred persons exposed to 
the infection of plague, by a near approach 
to the sick, ninety shall fall. sick, shall hu- 
man inability to assign a satisfactory reason 
for the preservation of the other ten, be con- 
verted into a positive argument against the 
disease haying been caught by contagion? 
If persons retired from all commerce with 
the infected and their attendants, breathing 
the same air with the rest of the inhabi- 
tants, and nourished by the same aliment, 
remain untouched during the rage of the 
plague, ‘as long as’ they continue secluded ; 
but, upon unguarded communication, are 
taken ill, like others, ean any rational 
doubt arise about the cause of their former 
security? Or if, through stealth, or neglect 
of requisite precaution, substances, tainted 
by the sick, should be conveyed into those 
secluded retreats ; and persons, living tem- 
perately as before, ignorant of what hap- 
pened, and, consequently, in the midst of 
imaginary security, should be seized with 
the’ distemper, can it, with any show 
of reason, be ascribed, not to contagion, but 
to terror, to colluyies in the stomach, and 
bowels, produced by intemperance and bad 
aliment? The instances here alluded to, 
are. not the creation of fancy, but strictly 
consonant to repeated experience in Tur- 
key.” 
Dr. McLean, the leader of the anti- 
contagionists, does not deny that he 
was affected with the plague while, in 
the, pest. hospital at. Constantinople ; 
but he argues that his disease could not 
haye arisen from contagion, as none. of 
the attendants took it, Surely this ex- 
planation, if itcan be called so, does not 
prove, what he is so. anxious to. shew— 
the non-existence of contagion as the 
cause of plague. It is to be remarked, 
that. the attendants, equally .with the 
Doctor,, were, exposed to. the same 
causes of ‘disease, whether existing ex- 
ternally, or within the walls of the hos- 
pital; and, in my opiniog, had not the 
Doctor’s illness been occasioned by con- 
tagion, it would have been a_ striking 
anomaly, in. the history. of epidemic 
diseases, that all the servants alluded to 
should have remained in health, . But, 
as it;seems eyident that the Doctor’s 
plague was derived, from its undeviating 
source of propagation, wix:, contagion, 
the exemption; of, the others can be 
more readily accounted for. The Doc- 
tor, shut up ina pest-hospital_inabar- 
barous country,..and ‘thereby. livingin a 
Contagion of Plague. 
way entirely different to his feelings and 
accustomed habits, circumstances that 
greatly tended to increase his depres- 
sion, of, mind, rendering. him nervous 
and, timid, became thereby much more 
susceptible tothe impulse.of contagion 
than. his, attendants, inured to this mode 
of seclusion, and. enjoying; ay full and 
plentiful ; diet, , with -their feelings, in 
other respects,)at,,perfect) ease; while, 
again, their, more frequent,,intercourse 
with the. sick, ,rendered.,them, by the 
power of habit, less liable to, sufter from 
contagion. . ‘There are several instances 
where the. plague has. been. excited by 
inoculation; and.I haye,heard, from 
highly respectable authority, that some- 
thing like this, has taken place in ty- 
phus; but..there is, no,analogous, fact 
to this.in the occurrence of; yellow, or 
any other form of marsh fever. 
The difficulty of tracing precisely the 
introduction of the plague into a place 
previously healthy, has been laid hold 
of as an argument against its contagious 
nature. In this, manner, the. breaking 
out of the plague in Malta, in 1813, is 
strenuously denied as haying been occa- 
sioned by imported contagion.. It is to 
be observed, that on all such occasions 
the difficulty is greatly increased by the 
extreme severity of the sanitary laws; 
capital, punishment .being the. conse- 
quence of all clandestine and unguarded 
intercourse with, contaminated goods or 
suspected. persons. : 
In the particular instance.now before 
us, there can be no question that Malta, 
which, of all the:islands of the Mediter- 
ranean, is. the) most salubrious, and 
whose inhabitants have scarcely. ever 
any febrile disease, , prevailing. among 
them, was, previously to) the,.arrival of 
the, ship San. Nicola, particularly, free 
from. disease; , and,~ after, the): most 
anxious. and careful. investigation of 
this case, there-was not-a\person:on the 
spot who .enfertained,a doubt of, the 
disease having been introduced. into: the 
island fromthe clandestine ,intereourse 
with the ship, by/the, persons in\-whose 
house the plague first broke outs: 
Ishall next add.a recent-instance of 
plague, as it appeared_in Cephalénia; 
and where the mode. ofts-introduction 
into that. island was as (clearly»ascer- 
tained, as any.similan fact could:pos- 
sibly be.—-In »the, summer of, 1816, a 
native of Comitata, | districtstown of 
Cephalonia; situated on-elevated gtound, 
and then healthy, aecording,to the cus- 
tom, of \his.countrymen, had been over 
in. Greece, atwork asya)busbandman. 
Immediately 
a 
